


two can keep a secret (if one is dead)

by Dinae



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Fix-It of Sorts, Season/Series 06 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 14:33:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21078374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dinae/pseuds/Dinae





	two can keep a secret (if one is dead)

Emily had always carried secrets; treasure hidden in a bed post. behind the brick of fireplace, rough engravings on the bottom of the polished dining table. 

This was the biggest secret; bigger than Lauren. Being someone else had been easy, she'd done so many times. Taking on a new demeanor, a new accent, a new style with every posting and country and language. 

It'd been fun.

This wasn't.

That first day, Emily was the only one who knew she wasn't transferring from the Midwest. She hadn't gone to Quantico, she'd never been a cadet. 

Her style is all wrong— it'd been years since she had been Emily, the society girl who went to Yale.

It's too much to keep track of, especially when reminded that Hotchner had met her once. He doesn't remember anything really.

She recalls even less— what had she been like, at eighteen? Before she had lied and killed and gotten into bed with weapons dealers?

This secret hides away in a jewelry box, occasionally rattled by a snooping hand.

JJ and Hotchner ask how she can be so calm— she's supposed to be a field agent. The rote answer comes out flat. She has to squash all of the emotion out. Emily Prentiss hadn't been intimate with arms dealers. She wasn't Interpol, she was an unambitious agent from an unimportant office in the Midwest.

But who was Emily, really?

It's almost a relief to return to Lauren. Burns like the sun, like the clover into her flesh.

The secret has spilled out of the jewelry box and all she has to do is string it onto her necklace. Press a kiss to the figure on the chain, and return the clasp to the back of her neck. The motion is a spell, and the words are a reminder:

Lauren is dead. Emily is alive.


End file.
